The son of a Russian aristocrat with a mystery past is auctioning off an heirloom - miniature jewelled eggs in a necklace given to his mother by an Empress. Josh Crocker, 54, from Mapperton, is in the process of making a film about his mother, Tatiana Gaubert, a Russian orphan who was adopted by a noble family.
Tatiana came to London in 1933 at the age of 20 after surviving the Russian revolution, despite being an aristocrat and having worked for a forerunner of the KGB.
Now Mr Crocker is selling a necklace his mother was given by the Empress Tsarina of Russia, which is expected to attract worldwide interest when it goes up for auction at Hy Duke and Son of Dorchester on April 11.
The necklace, expected to fetch more than £10,000, contains 13 eggs, six by court jeweller Faberge, including one example covered in cinnamon enamel, overlaid with gold branches and inset with rose-cut diamonds.
It is one of many treasures brought to England when Tatiana fled the Communist regime.
Mr Crocker said: "We have kept quiet about my mother's past all these years, but now I am getting older it is time to tell her story. "There are so many romantic stories about her - one was that she was found as a child, covered in blood on a pile of corpses. "She was taken in by Elizabeth Gaubert, a close friend of the Empress from a wealthy French Huguenot family who became the Grand Duchess of Hesse. But the Russians suspected she was an aristocrat by birth, and she was blackmailed into joining the organisation that later became the KGB.
"There is so much intrigue surrounding my mother's life, and the full story will come out when the book and film is made." Faberge was the court jeweller and the necklace would have been built up like a charm bracelet over the years, but Tatiana received the necklace complete with six Faberge eggs and a selection of eggs from other jewellers.
Russian goldsmith and jeweller Peter Carl Faberge took over his father Gustav's business in St Petersburg in 1870 and the business quickly became the leading jeweller's in the city.
He opened branches in Moscow, London and Kiev. He is most famous for the Easter eggs he made for Alexander III to give to his family at Easter.
Sale of the necklace on Friday 12 April 2002
Antique silver sale price stuns valuers
A sale by Duke's Dorchester saleroom.
An Aladdin's Cave of silver and jewellery went under the hammer for £275,000 at the showroom in Weymouth Avenue in the latest sale. Dealers snapped up a West Dorset family's Faberge egg necklace for £11,000. Josh Crocker, who lives near Bridport, put up the Faberge egg necklace for auction. It was passed down to him through his mother and his aristocratic grandmother - who was a goddaughter of the last Tsarina of Russia. It was sold to a London dealer for £11,000 - £1,000 more than the estimated price.
Paintings & Furniture Sale on Thursday 4th July 2002 - from - http://www.dukes-auctions.com/Catalogues/PF040702/page9.htm
lot 268
JYAKAVLAEV A portrait of Elizabeth Bannister as a young woman wearing a black lace shawl and a pink rose in her hair and at her bosom, signed and dated 1859, oval, oil on canvas, 41" x 32", in a Chippendale style giltwood frame carved with rocaille-work and leafy fronds. See illustration #2000-4000 Elizabeth Bannister's father was a great favourite of Czar Nicholas I. She married Grigori Timofeevich Krikounousky. Provenance: A Russian noble family and thence by descent.
lot 269
RUSSIAN SCHOOL, 19th century A portrait of Grigori Timofeevich in uniform and seated in a chair, a cigarette in his right hand, oil on canvas, 34" x 27", in a giltwood frame with incised foliate carving. See illustration #600-1200 Grigori Timofeevich married Elizabeth Bannister (see lot 268) and family tradition asserts that he was responsible for building the first railway in Russia. Provenance: A Russian noble family and thence by descent.